I thank you
You're most gracious
This next song is quite personal to me
And I think it is to you
I'd like to take just a minute or two to tell you why it's a personal song to me
And should be to you
It's a song about this great big, wonderful, imperfect country
I say imperfect because if it were perfect it wouldn't be any fun trying to fix it
Trying to make it work better
Trying to make sure that everybody gets a fair shake and then some
My country is personal to me because my father who wasn't born here
Rest his soul, he made sure that I was born here
And he used to...
He used to tell me when I was a kid that America was a land of dreams and a dream land
Well, I don't know if our country fulfilled all of his dreams while he was alive
But tonight with all of us together for this hour it sure fulfills all of my dreams
And to all of you in the country and all of you watching tonight
Here's a song about a place we call home
Probably the greatest nation ever to be put on this earth
What is America to me?
A name, a map, or a flag I see
A certain word, democracy
What is America to me?
The house I live in
A plot of earth, a street
The grocer and the butcher
And the people that I meet
The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That's America to me
The place I work in
The worker by my side
The little town, the city
Where my people lived and died
The howdy and the handshake
The air of feeling free
And the right to speak your mind out
That's America to me
The things I see about me
The big things and the small
The little corner newsstand
Or the house a mile tall
The wedding and the churchyard
The laughter and the tears
And the dream that's been a growing
For about 200 years
The place I live in
The street, the house, the room
The pavement of the city
Or a garden all in bloom
The church, the school, the clubhouse
The millions lights I see
But especially the people
Yes, especially the people
That's America to me
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen
I'm glad you liked that, I don't get a chance to sing it much
It's a fine piece of music
And with all of the problems we've had and we've licked
And we'll have more problems and we'll lick those
And it'll happen but we'll keep beating the problems
We're that strong
And, uh, I just think that it's nice to live in this country that's all
